Jocasta

Also known as: Epicaste · Family: Thebes · Role: wife of Laius · First appears: Book 9 · Chapter 5

In Book 9, Chapter 5, Jocasta was married to Laius when he ruled as king. After the oracle at Delphi warned that a son of Jocasta would kill him, Laius exposed Œdipus.

As the oracle had foretold, Œdipus later killed Laius and married Jocasta, his mother. The account says that the children attributed to Jocasta and Œdipus were instead children of Euryganea the daughter of Hyperphas.

Relationship record

Life events

• After the oracle’s warning, Laius exposed Œdipus.(Book 9 · Chapter 5)
  • With: Laius Œdipus
  • “When Laius was king and wedded to Jocasta, the oracle at Delphi told him that he would die at the hands of his son, if Jocasta bare him one. And that was why he exposed Œdipus,”
• Œdipus killed Laius and married Jocasta.(Book 9 · Chapter 5)
  • With: Œdipus Laius
  • “who was fated after all when he grew up to kill his father. He also married his mother.”

Book 9 · Chapter 5

• married with Laius (Marriage is explicit.) “When Laius was king and wedded to Jocasta”
• child: Œdipus (The passage rejects Jocasta as the mother of Œdipus's children, but the broader mythic genealogy makes her his mother; the quote does not state it directly.) “But how could they soon make it publicly known, if Œdipus had 4 children by Jocasta? So they were the children of Euryganea the daughter of Hyperphas”
• married with Œdipus (The immediately preceding sentence identifies Laius's son Œdipus as the subject.) “He also married his mother.”

Book 9 · Chapter 26

• married with Laius “the oracle at Delphi only referred to his wife Epicaste and male children by her”

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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.